The Lunch Lady is a foodie at heart with a quest to share delicious, simple, wholesome food with anyone who wants to be inspired.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Kitchen Makeover Part 4: Painting the Tile Backsplash

We have old brown Grandma tiles. I've strongly disliked them since we moved here five years ago.

They weren't as noticeable with the leafy brown wallpaper and tan counters because they all blended in but once we replaced the counter tops and ripped off the wallpaper, they stood out like a sore thumb. I have a sore thumb right now, I should know.

And bruises! We had a huge ladder in the middle of the kitchen for 3 days and I kept running into it. It's now against the wall.

They kinda clash right?

Much better.

The tile wraps around the windows above the sink and most of the counters.

The tiles needed to be de-greased first so I gave them a good cleaning.

The first coat is a PVA primer.﻿ My 13 year old taped off all the counters and did a lot of the priming with me.

He's awesome. He offered all on his own.

He's growing up.

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This is one coat of primer and one coat of paint. I imagine they will need 3 coats of paint but since there isn't a lot of tile, it should go pretty quickly. I use an artist brush to fill in the cracks and a mini roller loaded with paint to paint over top of the tiles. They are textured so it's important to get enough paint on them.

I'm amazed at how much they look like plain white tiles now. Since they don't have a big grout space and the paint has a gloss quality to it, they look so bright and clean! I used the same paint as on the cabinets, the guy at Lowes said I could. I like the guy at Lowes. It meant I didn't have to buy another gallon of paint.

I'll post more pictures once all of the back splash is finished.

We put up the cabinet doors late last night.

Today's tasks: Finish touch up painting, paint the back splash tiles, and re-organize the kitchen. The only thing left to do will be to paint the ceiling but first we are replacing the sky light. We also need to pick out new knobs for the cabinet doors.